Fireball Run in Independence just the start of fantastic experience for team from Ohio Center for Broadcasting

View full sizeCOURTESY OHIO CENTER FOR BROADCASTINGChristopher O'Connell of the Ohio Center for Broadcasting poses with the New York Flamingo Dance Team during a stop on the Fireball Run.

INDEPENDENCE -- Last month’s Fireball Run Northern Exposure turned out to be more than an adventure for students and staff of the Ohio Center for Broadcasting. The eight-day trip from Independence to Bangor, Maine enabled them to make friends and connections that could last a lifetime.

Christopher O’Connell, regional outreach coordinator for the Ohio campus located on Rockside Road, and John Basile, technical director from the Illinois campus, participated in the event, also called the Race to Recover America’s Missing Children. Team 22 drove the 2,500 miles in a school van outfitted with equipment to live-stream the historical, poignant and sometimes outrageous activities.

Four students — LaTonia Hope of Cleveland, Rollin Devere III of Chagrin Falls, Greg Neff of Stow and Stephanie Sager of Barberton — also went along as interns and technical assistants with Fireball Run, produced by Adrenaline Partnership, headquartered at Universal Studios in Florida.

“It was a mystery at first. The first three days we didn’t know what to expect, but then we got it down to a routine,” Devere said.

The students divided into two teams. One team was responsible for setup and filming at the lunch stop and at the destination city for the day, while the other leap-frogged between the small towns along the way where the teams performed “missions.” Their equipment was a mobile “TV studio in a box,” including four cameras and a green screen that they had to pack and unpack quickly at each stop.

“It was really crazy. We had to beat the Fireballers there, establish the signal location, find where we could get the best picture, find a power source, set up, get in position, and get on air so we would be ready for what was going to take place,” Hope said. “We had to do all that in a short amount of time, then it was off to the next destination.”

Sager’s favorite moment was at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, where they had a few minutes to enjoy the scenic beauty of early fall while waiting for the cars to arrive for a hilarious mission.

“The Grand Canyon is in Tioga County, so the contestants had to buy sheets, wrap themselves in it like a toga with none of their clothes being visible, in order to get their next mission envelope,” she said.

Devere’s favorite stop on the trip was Waterbury, Conn., one of the evening destinations.

“The whole town shut down, and they did a re-enactment of JFK’s speech he gave at 3 a.m. on Oct. 17, 1962, on the balcony of the Hotel Elton. No one had been on that balcony for years,” he said.

Another re-enactment took place in Bangor, Maine, where the teams “shot down” famous gangster Al Brady. “They did the re-enactment for each team member, so we shot it 40 times,” he said.

Hope liked the way crowds gathered at every town. The teams handed out cards and flyers with the pictures of missing children. “It was really, really encouraging when we would pull up and see all these people out there with signs. You had lines of cheerleaders, kids getting off school buses or trolleys, all saying they support the efforts of the Fireball run.”

Devere added, “It was like the president coming to town, but it had a meaning to it.”

O’Connell kept a log of the missions, which included a number of “white glove moments” that included holding a mailbag that Charles Lindbergh threw out of an airplane, Lucille Ball’s first Emmy award, the Nobel Prize for the first TV ever built, George Washington’s inaugural campaign button, and the first comic book printed in the U.S., along with the Pulitzer Prize earned for it.

Other challenges were just fun: riding in a real Sherman tank, taking a lap on a race course, paddling a giant pumpkin in a regatta, and singing before celebrity judges the “10,000 Maniacs.” O’Connell took first place on that mission, a proud moment for him.

The OCB team also borrowed the WMMS pink flamingo and attached it to the roof of the van. They took pictures of “Floyd” at every stop, and posted them online. Soon the flamingo had its own following.

That was especially true in Waterford, N.Y., where the usual crowd of people lined the streets as the Fireball teams drove up. When O’Connell got out of the car he heard screaming and was surrounded by a group of young girls, dressed in pink.

“They were the New York ‘Pink Flamingo’ Dance Team, and they were so excited to see Floyd,” he said. “One little girl handed me a pink flamingo Beanie Baby, and said ‘thank you for helping children.’”

He fought tears when he told of the three children found as a result of the Fireball, including the child assigned to his team last spring. The girl was recovered in June, so they were assigned another child.

“Fireball was so many things. It was economic development for the cities, it was helping local charities, but it was mostly about finding these kids,” he said.

The students earned film credits for their efforts, and hope the hard work will translate into job opportunities when they graduate.

“I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity. The Fireball Run staff taught me a lot while on the road, from little things like how to pack a bag tighter, to how to hold lenses of cameras and how to make a live broadcast work during inclement weather,” Sager said. “Fireball Run was an unbelievable experience.”

O’Connell is already signed up for next year’s run, which will take place on the West Coast and will include only alumni from previous rallies, especially the celebrity teams.

The school will also continue to live-stream future Fireball Runs, and is already drawing on its connections with Universal Studios for its new Florida branch.

“Fireball Run was a great thing for our students and for the school,” O’Connell said. “It really was epic and life-changing.”

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